Readathon Wrap Up

So the Readathon officially ended today at 5 a.m. here in California. I’d like to say I met that early hour with cheers and dancing, but I missed out on that part of the festivities. I decided to rest my eyes at about 1 a.m. and did not emerge from a book-induced coma until about 8:45 a.m. A day full of reading can do that to a person, but I am sure some literary characters snuck into my dreams, so I was not completely detached from reading.

To me, this event is not about how many pages were read or how many books were finished. It’s about celebrating reading. As the event organizer’s describe it, the Readathon is, “a ‘choose your own’ type of adventure.” In the days leading up to the event and throughout the course of the Readathon, readers posted pictures of the books they were reading, their snacks, cozy reading spots and furry friends snoozing alongside their reading humans.

I’m no stranger to forgoing my to-do list for a day spent immersed in books, so the Readathon seemed like a good fit. I knew that part would be fun, but I did not anticipate how exciting the online community created around the event would be. All throughout the 24 hours of the Readathon, other readers were posting pictures on social media, and each hour brought a different blog hosting mini challenges that offered a chance to win book-related prizes. I kept to Facebook and Twitter for my updates, but there was also activity over on GoodReads and Instagram. It was a supportive and fun community of people who connected over their love of books and reading, and I had a number of interesting exchanges with other readers. As I said in my last post, it was a reminder that there are corners of the Internet where kindness exists.

As for my reading, I started by finishing up March by Geraldine Brooks. I then moved into Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All be Feminists. After that I switched off between Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris and Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I also listened to two episodes of the Selected Shorts podcasts so that I was able to go for a walk and get a few things done while listening to short stories. All in all, it was a successful day of reading that is spilling over into Sunday while thoughts of having to work tomorrow are still far enough in the distance that they are not bothering me.

Special thanks to the hosts, volunteers and all the amazing readers who made my first Readathon quite enjoyable. If you haven’t had a chance, check out #readathon on Twitter for some fun posts about the event. The next Dewey’s 24-Hour Readathon will take place on October 22. Start working on preparing your to-be-read stack now!